Cheech and Chong Almost Met Jason in Friday the 13th Crossover Movie

Throughout the history of the Friday the 13th franchise, some strange things have happened to Jason. And some even stranger things have been proposed. Some of them cool, some of them weird and some of them flat out baffling. This could have been any one of those things, depending on how it went. As revealed by Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives director Tom McLoughlin, a Jason vs. Cheech and Chong movie could have happened in the late 80s/early 90s.

The director was recently a guest on the Post Mortem podcast. During the conversation, Tom McLoughlin reveals that he was approached to do another Friday the 13th movie. At first, the eventual Freddy vs. Jason movie was pitched, but he didn't feel that was a real possibility. Here's what he had to say about it.

"[Frank Mancuso Jr.] wanted me to do another film after we did Jason [Lives]...And I said, 'What are you thinking? I don't know what it could be now.' And he said, 'Well, what do you think about Freddy (Krueger) and Jason?' And I go, 'But Freddy's at New Line and the guys at Paramount have [Jason].' And it's like, 'Well, we're going to try and see if we can work something out.' So, I started thinking about that, going, It doesn't make sense. I mean he lives in one realm and, you know, I take this stuff very seriously, what realm a monster's supposed to stay in. And he came back, he goes, 'Eh, forget it, it's not going to work anyway.'"

Eventually, Freddy vs. Jason would happen in 2003. However, as Tom McLoughlin tells it, Paramount owned the rights to the Cheech and Chong movies in addition to the Friday the 13th franchise. So, why not have Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong face off against Jason in a movie? That was his thinking at the time, anyway. But Paramount didn't agree.

"I said, 'You know what? You guys own Cheech and Chong. What if we do Cheech and Chong-meets-Jason? They're like camp counselors or something. It's like, 'Hey, man, I saw Jason out there.' 'No, man, that's a myth.' But he said, 'You know what? No.'"

While this would have been a massive departure for both the Cheech and Chong movies and the Friday the 13th series, we can't say it's totally ridiculous, as far as horror movies go. Did you see Jason X? And the idea of having the stoner duo as camp counselors actually sort of works. There's no reason the two franchises couldn't exist in the same universe. Whether or not they should is an entirely different story. Who knows? If someone else had been in charge at the time, this Jason vs. Cheech and Chong movie might actually exist. If you want more with Jason Lives director Tom McLoughlin, you can listen to the full episode of the Post Mortem Podcast.